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2.24: Emotional Health

  • Page ID
    11674
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    Emotional well-being is a term that has been used increasingly in recent decades. The implications of decreased emotional well-being are related to mental health concerns such as stress, depression, and anxiety. These in turn can contribute to physical ill-health such as digestive disorders, sleep disturbances, and general lack of energy.[1] The profile of a person prone to emotional distress is usually someone with low self-esteem, pessimistic, very self-critical, etc. and people who need to constantly assert themselves through their behavior. They also tend to be afraid, overly worried about the future, and focused on the past.

    On the positive side, enhanced emotional well-being is seen to contribute to upward spirals in increasing coping ability, self-esteem, performance and productivity at work, and even longevity. Thoughts determine feelings, and thoughts are nothing more than firings of neurons. And those feelings that thoughts generate make the body release extremely addicting substances like adrenaline and cortisol. Like with any other addiction, the need to continually feed off these addicting substances tends to make the body think and feel in a certain way. When someone decides to disengage from these emotional addictions, he/she must learn to think differently.

    Emotions and feelings are part of every step a person takes. A person must learn how to manage himself/herself in order to reach the maximum potential in all aspects of life. Good emotional health leads to better physical health, prevents diseases, and makes it possible to enjoy life and be happier. In this way you can become a “medicine person” through mirror neurons, those that lead to empathy and fire to imitate the emotions of others. Mirror neurons are what make you feel good when you’re with someone who is positive, cheerful and motivational. At the other extreme are the so-called “toxic people”, who make others around them feel bad.


    This page titled 2.24: Emotional Health is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Garrett Rieck & Justin Lundin.

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